Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown highlight that South Africa needs to make disaster management an integral element of every public institution and project, from local municipalities to national government departments.
According to Andries Fourie, a senior technologist in disaster and risk management at SRK Consulting a natural phenomenon only becomes a disaster when a community is vulnerable to its impacts.
"The pressure that the pandemic put on our health system showed up how issues like drunk driving, for instance, contributed to our medical vulnerability," said Andries. "Weakness in traffic enforcement has meant that drunk driving now causes so many injuries that the government felt compelled to prohibit liquor sales as a strategy to free up hospital beds."
Andries further noted another example, which is, in water management where leaking water pipes from lack of maintenance contribute to vulnerability in times of drought and pollution of our vulnerable resources.
SRK Contributor:
Andries Fourie
